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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Determining the Reactivity and Titre of Serum using a Haemagglutination Assay
Published on: January 29, 2010
Involvement of complement and RA factor in non-specific agglutination of the latex reagent for HAA
Heat inactivation of fresh sera reduced significantly the proportion of false-positive reactions when the latex agglutination test for the detection of HAA was used in a series of 454 sera, possibly because heating destroys the C'lq fraction of complement. Non-specific agglutination also occurred if RA factor was present in sera tested, a fact that has been previously reported. This rapid and simple test may be very convenient as a screening procedure, but all positive sera should be tested again by means of a more specific method, as well as for RA factor. Improvement of the reagent may result in the elimination of false-negative results, which were no-observed in this study but have been reported by others.
Heat inactivation of fresh sera reduced significantly the proportion of false-positive reactions when the latex agglutination test for the detection of HAA was used in a series of 454 sera, possibly because heating destroys the C'lq fraction of complement. Non-specific agglutination also occurred if RA factor was present in sera tested, a fact that has been previously reported. This rapid and simple test may be very convenient as a screening procedure, but all positive sera should be tested again by means of a more specific method, as well as for RA factor. Improvement of the reagent may result in the elimination of false-negative results, which were no-observed in this study but have been reported by others.
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